Jules Henry

Values: Guilt, Suffering, and Consequences

It is characteristic of any culture that the ordinary person does not define the central values that guide his conduct, even though they press him inexorably in the direction of one kind of behavior and interdict others. The arguments that engage philosophers do not concern him, even though in the long run they do affect him. The effect is not in terms of the definition or redefinition of his conduct, but rather in terms of his reinforcement: fundamentally no philosopher is outside his culture-he can merely formulate predominant attitudes and ideas and reintroduce them into the schools, strengthened by the prestige and the arrogance of the academic position.